aim? Simply to inspire people and give them the
most complete freedom to live their own life. No
glamour, no fame, no institution—nothing. To
live simply and die luminously.” Anirvan wrote
some 20 books, most of them commentaries on
the scriptures and philosophical systems of India.
All but two English volumes were published in
Bengali. Anirvan died on Fern Road in Calcutta
on May 31, 1978.
Further reading: Shri Anirvan and Lizelle Reymond,
To Live Within: Teachings of a Baul (North Yorkshire,
England: Coombe Springs Press, 1984); Sri Anirvan,
Inner Yoga (Antaryoga). Translated from the Bengali by
Simanta Narayan Chatterjee (New Delhi: Voice of India,
1988); ———, Buddhiyoga of the Bhagavad Gita and
Other Essays (Madras: Samata Books, 1991).
Annapurna
Literally “She who is abundant [purna] with food
[anna],” the goddess Annapurna is considered
a form of DURGA or sometimes of PARVATI, both
being wives of SHIVA. In her iconography she is
light colored and stands on a lotus or sits on a
throne. She has only two hands; in one she holds
a bowl of rice and in the other a spoon that is used
to stir rice while cooking it. Sometimes Shiva, as a
mendicant, is receiving alms from her. For many
Hindus she is a protecting deity; those who wor-
ship her are said never to want for food.
The most elaborate festival to Annapurna
takes place in BENARES (Varanasi) in the fall, when
she is celebrated as the sustainer of life. She is
also celebrated there in the springtime during the
annakuta or “food-pile” festival, in which a pile
of food fills her temple in worship to her. In the
spring, she is worshipped in association with the
new sprouts of rice in the fields; at that time her
temple is decorated with rice sprouts.
In the Linga Purana there is a story about
Annapurna that purports to tell how Shiva took
the form of ARDHANARISHVARA, or “half-man, half-
woman.” Once when Shiva was unable to do his
usual begging to support his family as a result of
marijuana intoxication, there was nothing in the
house to eat. Shiva thereupon went out to beg,
while Durga, his wife, in anger, started out for
her father’s house. On the way she and her chil-
dren ran into the famous sage NARADA. Narada
told her that in her aspect as Annapurna she
should make it impossible for Shiva to get food
by begging. She did this and went home, still in
her aspect as Annapurna. When Shiva returned
home she offered him food. He was so pleased
that he merged his being with her, creating Ard-
hanarishvara.
The name of this goddess is given to one of the
highest peaks in the HIMALAYAS.Further reading: John Stratton Hawley and Donna
Wulff, eds., The Divine Consort Radha and the Goddesses
of India (Berkeley, Calif.: Berkeley Religious Studies
Series, 1982); David Kinsley, Hindu Goddesses: Visions
of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradi-
tion (Berkeley: University of California, 1986); W. J.
Wilkins, Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic (Calcutta:
Rupa, 1973).Anoopam Mission (est. 1965)
The Anoopam Mission was founded in 1965 as an
independent branch of the SWAMINARAYAN MOVE-
MENT. It is dedicated to the worldwide spread of
the theistic devotional Hinduism (BHAKTI YOGA)
and strict moral code of Sri Sahajanand Swami,
better known to his followers as Swaminarayan
(1781–1830).
Swaminarayan believed that God was not the
impersonal deity portrayed in the writings and
oral tradition of VEDANTA. Saints and RISHIS (wise
souls) were teachers who had traveled to Earth to
help a suffering humanity find the way to God;
the swami considered himself to be an incarnation
of an earlier guru, Lord Swami Narayan, who was
believed by his followers to be God.
In the mid-20th century, His Supreme Holiness
Brahmaswarup Param Pujya Yogiji Maharaj (d.Anoopam Mission 39 J